[120] Ibid., V. iii, p. 552
But to return to our notes “To Correspondents” in February 1818, there remains one or two others of especial interest as illustrating the attitude these notes assumed. For instance: “Can C. C. believe it possible to pass off on us for an original composition, an extract from so popular a work as Mrs. Grant’s Essay on the Superstitions of the Highlands? May his plagiarisms, however, always be from works equally excellent.” Another: “The foolish parody which has been sent us is inadmissible for two reasons; first, because it is malevolent; and secondly, because it is dull.” We are inclined to think the latter was the decisive reason.
This same issue includes the first contribution of a man who was henceforth to wield an important pen in the make-up of the magazine—one William Maginn. He was a brilliant writer, and a reckless, and contributed copiously. Some one has characterized him as “a perfectly ideal magazinist”. The article, “Some Account of the Life and Writings of Ensign and Adjutant Odoherty, Late of the 99th Regiment”[121], well reveals the serio-comic tone of his work which was so popular. Ensign Odoherty was destined to fill many a future page. In fact, Maginn was “a find”!
[121] Ibid., V. ii, p. 562
Quoting from this article: “One evening ... I had the misfortune, from some circumstances here unnecessary to mention, to be conveyed for a night’s lodging to the watch-house in Dublin. I had there the good fortune to meet Mr. Odoherty, who was likewise a prisoner. He was seated on a wooden stool, before a table garnished with a great number of empty pots of porter.... With all that urbanity of manner by which he was distinguished, he asked me ‘to take a sneaker of his swipes’.”[122] This is the Ensign Odoherty of whom it is said “Never was there a man more imbued with the very soul and spirit of poetry.... Cut off in the bloom of his years, ere the fair and lovely blossoms of his youth had time to ripen into the golden fruit by which the autumn of his days would have been beautified and adorned,”[123]—etc.—“His wine ... was never lost on him, and, towards the conclusion of the third bottle he was always excessively amusing.”[124] The writer offers one or two specimens of Odoherty’s poetry, among them verses to a lady to whom he never declared himself. “This moving expression of passion”, we are told, “appears to have produced no effect on the obdurate fair one, who was then fifty-four years of age, with nine children, and a large jointure, which would certainly have made a very convenient addition to the income of Mr. Odoherty.”[125] On being appointed to an ensigncy in the West Indies, he sailed for Jamaica with a certain Captain Godolphin, and has left a charming poetical record of the trip, of which the following will sufficiently impress the reader: “The captain’s wife, she sailed with him, this circumstance I heard of her,
Her brimstone breath, ‘twas almost death to come within a yard of her;
With fiery nose, as red as rose, to tell no lies I’ll stoop,
She looked just like an admiral with a lantern at his poop.”[126]
The whole poem is not quoted, but the latter part of it gives an account “of how Mrs. Godolphin was killed by a cannon ball lodging in her stomach”[127], as well as other pathetic and moving events. In describing the rest of the stanzas, however, Maginn assures us, “It is sufficient to say they are fully equal to the preceding, and are distinguished by the same quaintness of imagination.”[128]!
[122] Ibid., V. ii, p. 563
[123] Ibid., V. ii, p. 562
[124] Ibid., V. ii, p. 564
[125] Ibid., V. ii, p. 566
[126] Same